Sunday, August 2, 2009

Day 2 - Competition

Doug congratulating me after my 50m dive - it was so special having him there as my safety diver

As I have abandoned the naked water polo that this after-party has devolved into, I have a moment to update the blog. Day 2 was a blast. I turned on my CB dive at 40m - after my first few kicks I knew my left ear was going to be a problem. I flooded my hood, equalized as hard as I could, turned head up at around 35m, but nothing would clear it sufficiently. No problem, at the end of the comp Doug and Aaron said they'd safety me and I tried it again. The plate was re-set to 50m and this time I made it and brought up three tags from the bottom plate, just to be sure. Matt made his 42m dive and the dive seemed to go better than yesterday. So two yellow cards for me, two white cards for Matt. Pete had a CNF re-do from yesterday first thing and a CB last on the list so he was in his wetsuit all day long. As it was a rainy and chilly day he got quite cold and I could see him shivering violently before his OT. In the end he did a 40m CNF which gave him first place in that category as well as qualifying him for the Worlds, and around a 47m CB dive; so two yellow cards for him. Seems like the Vancouver gang had a plethora of yellow cards this competition - luckily the lone American improved our stats. No matter, we had a ball.

Medals. And beer.A terrific combination.

more medals

Philippe & Peter - CB & CNF winners - being very, very serious

The awards ceremony came directly afterward and all three of us are bringing medals home to Vancouver. After that came the requisite scotch, a lot of beer drinking, dancing, various lewd shenanigans and the aforementioned naked water polo. There is talk of a sunrise dive at Flintkote Quarry but so far the only takers are Philippe (the instigator), Francois and Aaron.

What an incredible competition! Thank you so much to the organizers (Francois, Nathalie, Philippe), the safety divers (Doug, Aaron, Lars, Martin, Philippe), the judges (Guillome & Mathieu) and all the other competitors. We won't forget it!